R & R on the Maldives

After the cold weather in China, and the tiring trek in Nepal, we were ready for some R&R, and feeling very happy about booking a week in the Maldives at this point in our trip!
The Maldives is made up of 1200 islands, 200 of which are inhabited by locals, and many others of which are owned by international resorts that are super swanky (and well out of our budget).  An affordable option for us was to stay in a guesthouse on a local island, and we chose the small island of Dhiffusi based on a recommendation by friends (thank you Bill and Fiona!).
We flew into Male, the capital, and were met at the airport by a guesthouse rep.  He walked us outside where the aquamarine ocean was right across the street from the airport, full of boats waiting for guests.  The ocean was incredibly beautiful, the water turquoise and clear, the sky was bright blue, the air was warm - paradise found! (and I couldn't find a photo of it -darn!).

The vibe at the airport in Male

The boats at the airport ranged from large, fancy yachts to small, older motorboats - the latter of which was waiting for us. The separation between the "haves" and the "have lots" became pretty apparent as we rode in our little boat past a number of islands with sprawling private resorts, cabanas over the water and huge, white boats docked out front.  The number of big resorts with rooms for thousands of dollars per night made us wonder who stays there - are there really enough uber-rich people in the world to support all of those rooms?  Coming directly from the poverty of Nepal where so many are just getting by, it was kind of shocking to see the lavish lifestyle offered to tourists here.  I wonder what the locals think of it all as they live in their simple brick houses and fish for a living around the posh resorts.  Still, those resorts looked amazing and our kids in particular were feeling pretty motivated to try to find a way to stay at one of them someday!  It definitely got the kids thinking about wants vs. needs.

Maya donned her swim goggles and enjoyed the splash zone on the ride to our island!

We arrived at Dhiffusi island and were greeted by the guesthouse staff who loaded our bags into a large wagon cart and rolled it down the coral sand road to our guesthouse.  No need for vehicles here! The island was beautiful, blue sky, turquoise water, white sand, and quite small which made for a unique experience.  When standing on any of the streets that run the width of the island, we could look to the left and to the right and see the ocean on both sides of the island!

Looking to the ocean from the centre of the street - the island was twice as wide as this section

The island had about 2000 people but they were pretty scarce, I would have guessed 500 people based on the number we saw while wandering around.  The length of the island was much greater than the width, so we couldn't see both tips of the island at once, but we could easily walk around it in an hour or so.  There was a preschool and a grade school, a medical clinic, a mosque, a few small stores, a few scuba diving/water sports centres, several guesthouses or small hotels, and more being built.  The rest of the buildings seemed to be small, often colourful,  simple homes. There was also a soccer field that the locals played a match on every day at 4 pm, a few beaches for locals, and a few beaches for tourists.

Posing at one of the tourist beaches at a photo spot that reads #Maldives - a rare sign of anything modern on the island

All Maldivians are Muslims, we were told that it is a requirement of citizenship. There was a call to prayer several times per day on the island where music or a message was broadcast over a loudspeaker.  The women dressed very modestly, most were covered from head to toe despite the extreme heat.  If they went for a swim on the locals beach, they were fully clothed.  Visitors had to cover up when walking through town (but could wear swimsuits on the tourist beaches), and not show any signs of public affection. There was no alcohol permitted on the island and I have to say we did miss having a cold beer on the beach!

Some local women walking up the road.  On the left is a park the locals use, with lots of "chairs" consisting of a metal frame with netting over it, kind of like a hammock.

It was interesting to see that, since there is no soil, Maldivians actually can't grow food so they have to import everything.  Each day on our beach workers raked up all of the sea grass that washed up on the beach, and told us that they use it "for the soil", but we only ever saw a few bucket of tomatoes growing on the whole island.  They have an abundance of fish though, and we enjoyed some delicious tuna dishes there.

The guesthouse we booked into ended up being overbooked, so we were relocated to a newer place right on the beach - I think it was a good deal for us!  The views were amazing, gorgeous turquoise and blue water, white coral beaches that never got too hot to step on, palm trees, surf breaking in the distance, it was the classic tropical beach scene and we relaxed heavily!  Our new guesthouse had 4 sets of people staying for most of our time there, so we had lots of space and at times it seemed like our private house on the beach, with servers included, it was a nice change of pace for us!  All of the meals were included, so we didn't have to go out foraging - lucky too because there were only one or two restaurants on the island.  We spent the first few days just relaxing on the beach and going out for a swim or snorkel to cool off, although the water was really warm too.  There was a really amazing breeze blowing most of the time which was warm enough to be comfortable, and just strong enough to cool us but not be annoying.  The breeze was lovely, morning, noon, and night - it was one of my favourite things about the Maldives.

The view from our hotel room balcony down onto the beach in front of our hotel

The kids waiting for the sunset on our little beach

Enjoying the water and beach in front of our place

Our first full day there was Chris' birthday and our guesthouse had a cake made for him and prepared a special dinner on the beach for us, complete with candles in the sand around the table.  The desk attendant, who was from the Philipenes and had entered some singing contests there, even sang "Happy Birthday" - he was pretty good too!

The guesthouse employees set up a welcoming space on the beach for Chris' b-day dinner

After dinner with a locally made cake - yum!  Chris is holding up fingers to show his age.

On the third day we did an excursion to a private sandbar to go snorkelling.  It was pretty amazing, the visibility was so good because the water is really clear and the bottom is white so it reflects the light too.  We saw tons of species of fish and even a few turtles.  The reef itself had been killed by high ocean temperatures/coral bleaching a few years ago but was starting to grow back in places.  There wasn't much in the way of invertebrate life but the colourful and plentiful fish kept us entertained.

Lucas had injured his hand in Nepal and needed 5 stitches which, for some reason, didn't take, so he had the stitches removed at the (surprisingly good) medical clinic on Dhiffusi and then had to go each day to have it assessed and redressed.  Each day he hoped for news that he could get it wet, but it turned out that he couldn't get it wet until about 4 days after leaving the Maldives.  He tried to make the best of it by wrapping plastic bags around it and swimming or snorkelling with his hand up in the air, but it was pretty tiring and it was so hot that his hand got wet with sweat anyway.  He had a decent book to read and needed to rest anyway so he tried to make the best of it by reading on the beach or in the air conditioned room some of the time.

In our little boat on the way to the sandbar, Dhiffusi is on the right behind us, a private resort island on the left

A typical underwater scene at the sandbar

Chris snorkelling - he sees way more than I do because he dives down

Maya loving snorkelling

Lucas snorkelling with a lifejacket and plastic wrap to keep his hand high and dry

Maya drying off in the breeze

It took a few tries to get this shot lol!

Each day we wandered through the village a bit watching a soccer game, going to a different beach, seeing how the locals live.  We did some kayaking, paddle boarding, and Chris and the kids borrowed fishing gear from our original guesthouse which turned out to be fishing line with a hook wrapped around a coke bottle!  (Coca Cola has a factory on the Maldives, and they use desalinated sea water to produce it).   Chris went diving once and we went out for a catamaran/snorkel one afternoon, but otherwise we chilled at the guesthouse a lot.

Lucas getting soaked on the catamaran

Chris and Maya staying dry - for now!

Chris giving the SUP a try - there was a strong current between the islands that made it a bit challenging - see the cabanas of the nearest private resort to the left in this p

we kayaked around our neighboring private island and took a couple photos of the high life over there - it was nice but we saw much more posh resorts on the ride from Male.

Things were pretty low key on the island, which was just what we needed,  and by the end of the week we were definitely ready to move on to the next adventure, Sri Lanka!

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